Reflection of Hueco Mundo Arc
by iramdoll
Summary: Through the confounding of fate, a new adventure unfolds. Ichigo Kurosaki & company must uncover the secrets of a mystery that exists outside of time in order to save all of the Soul Society. In the process there will be romance, as well as heartbreak. GrimmIchi. Some Yaoi. Intended to be ongoing and quite lengthy.
1. Prologue

_The Reflection of Hueco Mundo Arc_

Prologue

The wind moaned. Its faint rhythm echoed across the shattered ruins of Las Noches. The patter of sand against marble was omnipresent. The moon, waning an empty smile, illuminated the former desert palace. It was a sad sight. What could have been beautiful architecture was bathed in a desolate shadow. By comparison all of the sky looked so bright. _Perhaps the stars teased the lonely fortress?_ They were infinite in number, while Las Noches stood alone; a mockery of grandeur when compared to the night sky. It was a spec really. A tiny grain of sand within the desert, just another blip within the universe. The moon and the stars knew. To them, looking down upon the fortress must have been a comical sight. It was empty and fragile. So were the creatures that dwelled there.

Within such a place, life was sparse. The few Hollows that remained after the fall of Las Noches had, like the former citadel, quietly faded away. Only traces of the past remained. Countless rooms, scrawled with the names of their now anonymous owners sat empty and began to fill with dust. There was a jarring heaviness that accompanied the vast absence of the lonely bastion. Time was lost here. In fact, time seemed as if it would never move again within this place. It had become too heavy, unable to flow onward. In a way, the Hollows that had survived the collapse of Las Noches were the same. They were immortal creatures, clinging onto the unobtainable goal of regaining their humanity, and were doomed to never progress in time. They either were or they ceased to be. They must toil to maintain their humanity forever.

In that respect, all of Hueco Mundo seemed so disenchanting. A vast desert, where Hollows must consume one another in order to maintain their sense of self. One had no purpose other than that. _It was pitiful. Pathetic really._ Everything seemed so helpless, just like this crumbling fortress. It and everything within it were stranded in the endless desert that was time. The moon and the stars would look down with a cruel gaze for eternity. The wind would whisper its inaudible words forever. The sand would rise and fall endlessly. This place would never change and neither would Grimmjow.

Grimmjow's cold eyes gleaned within the shadows of Las Noches. Their vacancy mirrored an emptiness that perturbed him like never before. He had never felt this way. It was like defeat, but… worse. There was no vengeance or rage, or even pain. There was only emptiness. The Hollow had no direction, nor did he think he could truly find it. Everything seemed so pointless now. He hated that. His journey had amounted to nothing. He had amounted to nothing. It was almost funny. Grimmjow's eyes gained a tinge of focus. _What was he now? Who was he now?_ He had once looked at the moon as if it were his prey, but now he looked at it in desperation. _Well? Who was he?_ He couldn't help but grin. He had relished killing and battle, but even that could not fill the emptiness within him. _So what would?_

The moon reflected flashes of the past back into his eyes. Swords and blood. A girl. They had come to save her. Friends. _Would anyone save him?_ The thought of Nnoitra's blade striking him. He saw the blade pouncing down upon him, but something had stopped it. Another blade. Another face. His face. Anger and resentment churned within Grimmjow. _What was this?_ He did not know. He was like this desolate place. Lost. Eyes still fixed on the moon, he reached his hand up towards it.

"_Just out of my reach_…" the Arrancar muttered in a monotonic drawl. "_Everything I wanted always was_."

A blackness started to settle into his mind. His memories all began to turn dark. He could not remember his battles, his enemies or even his victories. All that was left was the sky above him. It was so bright and expansive that it almost hurt.

"_I_…" he started. "_I wish I could have. That I could have…_"

His eyes returned to their vacant state. His hand fell back to his side. He was left in the shadow of Las Noches.


	2. Chapter 1: Normal Day

Chapter One

Ichigo's eyes opened. "_A strange dream_," he thought. Certainly, not the sort of dream an ordinary seventeen year old boy should be having. He reached out limply in an effort to silence his buzzing alarm clock. It escaped his hand and fell crashing towards the floor. "_Great…_" he muttered as he followed the squeaking contraption out of bed.

It seemed like there was never enough time to sleep anymore. Between his studies and his family, Ichigo felt like he had no time to himself. To make up for this, he had perhaps been staying up a bit too late. _Oh well. Nothing he could do really…_ "_Wait the time!_," he yelped after noticing that it was only ten minutes before his school's starting bell. "_I can't be late_," he breathed. "_I can't be late! Not today!_"

Maybe it was the fact that he was running too fast. Maybe it was the fact that he had no food. Maybe it was the fact that he was tired. Maybe it was a mixture of all of those things. But a block away from his school and a minute from being late, Ichigo saw it. Something he had never seen before. A giant monkey, only it didn't have a monkey's head. In fact, it didn't have a head. Where its head should have been was a featureless mask. It was rounded and devoid of expression, except for two black slits that one might assume were eyes. Ichigo stared at it.

"_What is that thing_?" he wondered. He had now come to a complete stop. He looked around hoping that the myriad of other people walking near to him would be just as intrigued, as well as concerned, as he was. However, no one seemed to notice the strange creature. In fact, everyone was walking right past it as if it were not there at all. Ichigo stood confused, at least until he had captured the beast's attention.

Ichigo gave a startled jump when he realized that the creature had seen him. He turned to keep walking, but before he could take another step, it was in front of him. He saw it more closely now. It was shaped like a monkey, but had no fur. Instead of feet it just had small stubs, and where its hands should have been were two slender flaps. He recoiled and lost his footing.

"_Ouch_," a plump man yelled as Ichigo fell backwards onto his shoe. "_Watch yourself_!" he seethed before continuing on his way.

Scrambling to his feet, Ichigo looked back towards the beast, only now it was no longer there. A chill ran down his spine. "_Where had it gone_?" he thought. "_It was just right over…_" His eyes surveyed the street all the way up to his school building. But it was gone. It had completely vanished. "_That was weird_," Ichigo muttered before remembering school. "_Oh no! I am late_!"

* * *

"_Very nice of you to join us Kurosaki-kun_," announced Ichigo's teacher as he tiptoed through the back of the class. "_I see you are late as usual. And on a test day? Oh well, you might as well start. You'll just be missing the first section of the test. __Hopefully you pass_."

Ichigo's face turned red. Perhaps even more red than his hair. There was a snickering emanating from his classmates. "_Oh well…_" thought Ichigo as he sat down at his desk and picked up his pencil. "_I've got to ace this_!"

"_Ace this_!?" Ichigo's mind raced. "I don't this stuff... _I really should have studied for this last night! What was I doing anyway_?" He knew that he had been waiting to take this test all year and that he had studied for it. But, for some reason, he couldn't recall any of the information. Nothing. His mind was blank. "_I'm doomed…_"

Giving up on the test, Ichigo spent the next hour and a half thinking about his dream. It had seemed so vivid. He was dressed differently. He was talking with strangers that had swords. He had one too. He was fighting. Fighting alongside Orihime-san, Chad-san, and Uryu-san. Why were they in his dream? He hardly knew his classmates.

His once vivid dream was becoming blurry now. He couldn't remember who or what he had been fighting. Only that there were lots of them. He vaguely remembered fighting someone with sky blue hair. _Maybe not fighting? _He remembered a city. He remembered a desert. There had been something there; in the desert. _What was it? _He closed his eyes, and began to focus. _Why couldn't he remember? _Everything seemed black in his memory. "_Hmmph_," he strained. All he could bring to mind was a loud sound, something like an engine, but louder. _Why couldn't he see what was making the sound_? "_Oh well, best not to_-" Ichigo thought.

"Try not to strain yourself Kurosaki-kun," his teacher spoke flatly. "I said that your time is up. Please hand me your test."

Ichigo looked down at his test in horror. He had barely completed anything. "_I…_" he gulped.

"I can already tell that you'll need some extra credit to make up for this," his teacher sighed while gesturing to Ichigo's test sheet. "_Report to my office after school and i'll assign you clean-up duty or something…_"

Ichigo's head fell in shame. "_Yes sensei_," he muttered.

* * *

Ichigo continued sweeping the rooftop floor. "_Why does the roof need to be swept anyway!? We aren't allowed up here_" he thought.

"Stupid dream. Stupid alarm clock. Stupid monke-" he grumbled. "_The monkey…" I wonder what type of monkey it was anyway_? _It definitely wasn't a normal one. That was for sure_. …_Oh well, he wouldn't ever know_. "_Stupid bad day_!"

"_Honestly, there is no way for this day to get any worse_" he shouted off of the rooftop. But, there was no one around to hear him.

Or was there? He heard the bucket that he had been using earlier fall to the ground. It made several clanging noises. "_Is anybody there_?" asked Ichigo. There was no reply. Frowning, Ichigo let out a sigh, "_Must have been the wind…_"

Another clang. Ichigo whirled around. This time it was one of the trash cans toppling over. "_Okay! Who is there_?" Ichigo shouted. No response. "_It's not funny…_"

Then he felt something touch his leg. He jumped backwards in shock. Still reeling, Ichigo looked at the spot where he had been standing just moments ago to see something he didn't expect. A cat. A black cat. It was slender with bright yellow eyes. Those same eyes seemed to be bearing through him with an intense gaze. _Yes, the cat was definitely starring at him_.

Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief. "_Shoo! How did you even get up here anyway_?" Ichigo asked as he threw a crushed soda can at the small animal. It didn't move, even when the can landed just inches away from its tail. In fact, the cat almost seemed to smirk at him, as if it were taunting Ichigo. "_Fine then… if that is how you want to play it_!" Ichigo bellowed as he charged towards the cat.

The cat casually sidestepped Ichigo causing the teenager to stumble over the fallen trash bin. "_Ouch…_" Ichigo groaned as he got back on his feet. "_You little… wait where'd you go_?"

The cat was no longer anywhere to be seen. Ichigo searched the entire roof, but it was gone. _How did it get up there anyway_? Probably someone trying to keep a cat on top of the school so that their parents wouldn't know. "S_tupid..._," he thought. _Wait. "Shit, I left the door to the roof open. Hopefully the cat didn't run in… Uhhg" _he complained as he headed back down the stairwell while looking for the small cat.

_"Today really hasn't been my day with animals."_ he mumbled.

* * *

Finished with his punishment, Ichigo packed up and started towards his house. He smelled like garbage and was more exhausted than ever. He sighed. _At least the weather wasn't bad anymore. _It was spring now. Even at night the temperature was still somewhat warm. The sun had already gone down, but there was some light. The stars were beginning to come out. _They all looked so familiar. _Ichigo didn't pay attention to the stars very often, but tonight they seemed more recognizable than ever before.

_Recognizable. Funny. _Ichigo couldn't think of the last time he had seen so many stars. _Was it last spring? "No, definitely not" _he pondered. _Why did his life seem so bland?_ He couldn't remember looking at the stars. _It seemed like the thing he would have done with friends at some point. If he had any. _That thought made Ichigo a little bit sad. He was seventeen and more or less friendless. Sure, he said hello to people here and there, but no one seemed to stick.

Ichigo felt like he had friends at some point, but couldn't recall anyone in particular. In fact, he couldn't recall anything about himself either. He was completely ordinary. He was seventeen, lived at home with his dad and two sisters, and had until this point got average grades. He couldn't remember doing something out of the ordinary in his entire life. He didn't question it. It was probably for the best. _Quite honestly, he was surprised no one made fun of him for his hair color or his name. _

Feeling a bit sentimental, Ichigo happened to look back up towards the sky and see a shooting star. "_Woah_," he grunted. Feeling a bit embarrassed at his response, Ichigo turned to see if anyone was following him, but there was no one. He felt a bit better and looked back up towards the sky. The shooting star was still there. It was soaring through the air; a flash of very bright light.

Ichigo wondered when it would become invisible again, until he realized that it wasn't moving away from him, but getting closer. "_Uh… Oh no_!" he yelped. "_It's not a shooting star, it's a meteorite_!" In a state of shock, Ichigo began to panic. He scuttled from place to place, until he ended up under a tree.

"_Why is no one around to see this!_?" Ichigo's mind raced. "_Leave it to me, the most ordinary guy ever, to die this way_." Ichigo prepared himself as the meteor's glowing light hurtled closer towards him. However, much to his surprise and delight, the glowing object continued to soar past him over the trees and further into the nearby park. Ichigo then heard a loud bang.

The meteor had hit the ground. _Again, why was no one around to see this? _Ichigo raced towards where the sound had come from. It was strange, running towards possible danger felt natural to him. _Maybe it was because his dad ran a clinic_.

He knew that he had to see if everything was alright.

It had gotten so dark, Ichigo could barely see where he was going. He tripped over a branch and cursed. He got back up and kept going. Something was driving him to survey the damage. Ichigo was almost there, he could feel it. There was a soft glow coming from just up ahead. He jumped through the trees. His feet came to a stop, and then he saw it.

* * *

It felt even more cold than usual. The desert was as dark and barren as it always was, but there was a gnawing chill this night. _Maybe it was because they were moving faster than before? _An old and worn man breathed out a heavy sigh.

"_Something the matter_?" asked a tall and slender woman. "_You seem tense_," she smirked.

"_Just the damn sound…_" the man said with a scowl.

"_Do try and relax. Engines make sound and we need the engines to keep moving_," she replied apathetically. "_Besides, your job is almost done. Just a bit longer and you'll be free to go."_

The man did not believe her. In fact, he wondered if a single truth had ever crossed the threshold of her lips. She had a sort of pouty expression; a forced smile that mirrored her odious personality.

"_Cheer up_," she laughed coldly as she turned to leave; long and dark curly hair flowing in the breeze.

He watched her disappear back inside. She was an alluring creature, but for every ounce of beauty she possessed was an exponentially larger amount of malice and cruelty. _To think, a Shinigami would make an arrancar cringe. It was amusing._


End file.
